Congress Seeks More Oversight of NSA Program

It would seem that when it comes to the NSA domestic surveillance program, Congress isn't content to simply hold public meetings. Instead, Congress is looking for some real oversight of the program, and the Bush administration has agreed to brief Congress on the program in greater detail than they have to this point:

Responding to congressional pressure from both parties, the White House agreed yesterday to give lawmakers more information about its domestic surveillance program, although the briefings remain highly classified and limited in scope.

Yesterday, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and former NSA director Michael V. Hayden briefed the House intelligence committee, behind closed doors, for nearly four hours. The panel "was given some additional procedural information to provide a fuller understanding of how carefully tailored and monitored this program is," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said. She said she did not think the information included estimates of the number of Americans who have been secretly monitored. Numerous lawmakers have said such information is important to help Congress gauge the program's legality and effectiveness.

Committee Chairman Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.) said in a statement: "Today's briefing was a positive first step, and I appreciate the White House's willingness to inform more members on aspects of this vital NSA program. While the briefing did not, and could not, cover the full operational aspects of the program, it will allow for increased committee oversight going forward."

Despite yesterday's White House comments, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) announced he is drafting a bill that would "require the administration to take the program to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court." The secret court was established in 1978 to handle Justice Department requests for warrants to monitor communications of terrorism and espionage suspects.

Once the program came to light, it was hard to imagine that Congress would simply sit back and let the administration carry it out as they saw fit with no public discussion or oversight, so it's not as if we couldn't see this coming. But it's a welcome development nonetheless. There remains the battle over the program's legality in the first place, and it also remains to be seen if Congress will see fit to legislate the program into legality one way or another, or if they will be limited merely to attempting to oversee the program in one way or another. Regardless, it will be impossible for the administration to claim pure executive authority on it, and more Congressional involvement in some fashion is sure to follow.